North West Africa News

Egypt headquartered Maridive Group, an international offshore marine and oil support services provider, has chosen to migrate 24 of its Offshore Support Vessels to Marlink’s VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) WaveCall Plus services in addition to one new build vessel. Maridive Group has a globally distributed fleet with an operational footprint covering North & West Africa, the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea and Latin American countries. The company selected Marlink to upgrade its vessels to VSAT in 2012, and this latest contract adds a further five vessels operating in Venezuela and Brazil, while enhancing Maridive’s communication capabilities for business, crew and safety by upgrading to WaveCall Plus.

The CMA CGM Group announced the launch of a new service, WAZZAN, joining Morocoo to North West Africa, and improving the container shipper’s Intra African coverage. The CMA CGM Group said the new service improves transit time between Mauritania, Senegal and Morocco by eight days, with previous transshipment calls being replaced by direct ones. In addition, a new direct call, from North West Africa and to Morocco, in Las Palmas is introduced. WAZZAN also develops CMA CGM’s reefer containers offer in Nouadhibou, Mauritania, allowing fish exports to intra African and worldwide markets.

Chevron Corporation informed that Alexander B. Cummings Jr. has been elected to Chevron's board of directors, and he will serve on the company's Audit Committee. John Watson, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Chevron said, "Mr. Cummings is a proven business leader who brings international experience and a global outlook. Cummings, 58, is executive vice president and chief administrative officer of The Coca-Cola Company, where he oversees a variety of functions including legal, human resources, community engagement, strategic planning, information technology, sustainability, security and aviation, research and development, product integrity, innovation, and procurement. He joined Coca-Cola in 1997 as region manager in Nigeria.

Cairn together with its joint venture partners have announced that the FAN-1 exploration well, offshore Senegal, has discovered oil. The well, located in 1,427 metres (m) water depth and approximately 100 kilometres offshore in the Sangomar Deep block, has reached a Target Depth (TD) of 4,927 m and was targeting multiple stacked deepwater fans. As stated prior to the commencement of operations there are no plans for immediate well testing. Further evaluation will now be required to calibrate the well with the existing 3D seismic in order to determine future plans and optimal follow up locations to determine the extent of the discovered resource.

The International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) – the international charity representing the world’s maritime search and rescue organizations – has held its first Asia Pacific Regional meeting and agreed on an action plan with the 17 Search and Rescue (SAR) organizations attending. Organized by the IMRF’s Asia-Pacific Regional Center (APRC), which was officially launched last September, the event was supported by China Rescue and Salvage (CRS) and, included more than 40 delegates from Korea, Thailand, Singapore, DPR Korea, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. The meeting was formally opened by Mr. Zhenliang Wang, Director General of China Rescue and Salvage…